World Environment Day

Apparently I will melt if I run outside in the rain. I pansied out. I'm a little embarrassed about it.

While the sky was still spitting rain and threatening more, we loaded the coaches promptly at 8 am to head to the University Sunshine Coast. It's a very very small university with about 6,000 students enrolled. After the near one hour trek, Mike led us through the very confusing campus grounds. One would believe that such a small campus population would mean a less complicated campus grounds... right?

Absolutely false.

We arrived at the lecture theater but our guest lecturer, Ben McMullen, met us a little later than expected. He had a rough morning- his wife had fallen down the stairs and required stitches.. and a tetanus shot. Talk about no fun there.

He talked to us about the Noosa biosphere structure before we set out to explore the grounds and the variety of tents set up there. The festival was fairly large but I'm going to have to be honest- there was not a lot to do. I chatted, along with Silvia, with some ladies promoting home gardening by showing off an array of some familiar and other downright odd produce. The most bizarre of tents included a bat lover's tent (I can't make this stuff up) where the host proceeded to kiss his flying fox companion. Another oddity was the free hug tent where an elderly chap threatened to hug me if I didn't walk fast enough. I escaped the jaws of doom but unfortunately Silvia wasn't so lucky.

Trying to stay dry, Silvia and I (along with a number of students) headed to the “ecoflicks” theater where we watched some... erm... different (?) independent films about an assortment of topics. Personal highlights included the one about a bench and the whispering globe one. OH and then there was the one saying how much better organic was for you. Peeve. Pet peeve.The former was a short film about building a bench in a park.  I can't even start to make this up: it pictured several old men drilling holes into concrete and filling the gaps with concrete.

For at least 5 minutes.

The latter was a movie, about 4 minutes I'd gander, of little kids whispering about how they love the blue earth and then showed clips of them throwing an inflatable earth around while wearing nothing but their nickers.

Whispering is creepy and when done in unison by children it's absolutely bone-chilling. I thought I wouldn't be able to sit through it.

I ventured outside where there was a fashion show and quite a few students sitting and watching to pass the time. Each model wore clothing from recycled fabric, meaning they made the clothes from.. clothes. So really, each outfit was made from shaped fabric. Call me closed-minded but I feel like that really doesn't take a whole lot of talent... especially when the outfits were as skimpy as the ones we saw. Although, looking on the bright side, some of them were actually quite well done. One had pretty intricate patterns- I was impressed.

When we got back Bob informed Silvia and I of his adventure and proceeded to pull out the craft he had made. Keep in mind, Bob is an entomologist. He made a butterfly kite.

It was awesome. Not only did he make this butterfly kite, he also danced about with it. I SO wish I had gotten a picture of him in the process.. I nearly fell out of the chair laughing. I wish I had found the bug tables at the fair.. they sounded way more fun than the ones I saw.

I spent the vast majority of the free afternoon working on the foraging activity with the one and only Bob. However, I was spared about an hour or so to take a walk and see more lorikeets. That, and a pretty sunset.

The night for the biology group was an interesting one. Watching 26 college aged students compete by seeing who can fish out the most jelly beans and M&M's from a bowl of macaroni using only a knife is perhaps some of the best entertainment a few dollars can buy. They probably aren't too fond of me right now but wow- what a sight.

Then again, I did spend last night doing the same thing: running around the apartment balancing a teetering jelly bean on the end of the knife several times over. Life as a TA is glamorous, just like grad school.